An Agent's Inbox #23

Dear Agent,

I have been working on my YA fantasy novel, Favored, since 2007. I’m submitting to “An Agent’s Inbox” because after several intense rounds with my critique partners and beta readers, we believe it is ready for fine-tuning. Your guidance would give me the feedback I need to make it shine.

Favored is the story of sixteen-year-old Lucy Howland, an Empath whose half-baked plans to fight poverty through stealing are thwarted by the secretive Brittany Kennedy, who’s after her for a power Lucy doesn’t even have.

Lucy’s plan to balance the inequalities that surround her takes off when she discovers a remarkable new power she can mold to her will. She wields it to break into the houses of the ignorant-wealthy people in small-town Victoria Falls, but it’s not enough. When Lucy meets a mysterious pair of twenty-somethings--Brittany and Jesse--intuition tells her to stay away but she refuses to listen. Instead, she obsesses over them, sure they’re hiding something.

Jesse and Brittany have a scheme of their own. With Jesse’s help, Brittany whisks Lucy off to a remote cabin, where Brittany will steal Lucy’s power and Jesse will erase her memory when they’re done. After Lucy escapes, Jesse reveals he’s working undercover for the supernatural police agency, Morality. He delivers Lucy to his uncle, Mason, who returns her to safety. Her relief at being home is short-lived, however, as mysteries unravel to offer truths involving family, her powers, a mission of her own, and the possibility of love with her sister’s lifelong crush.

As evidenced by the success of novels like Fire and Divergent, YA readers enjoy stories about characters overcoming challenges and finding a stronger version of themselves in the process. They will cheer and cry along with Lucy, and Lucy’s desire to leave the world a better place than she found it will resonate with YA readers of all ages.

Favored, set in upstate New York, is a completed manuscript at 59,000 words. The story is reminiscent of Little Women with a pinch of X-men. 

I’m a board member for the Maryland Writers’ Association and have used that experience to build my network and enrich my knowledge of writing, publishing, marketing, and platform building. I have strong ties to the DC area YA community, including a teen writing program I run in a local library. With the assistance of the vibrant writing community here, I will promote my novel at events for teen readers and through the network of published authors.

As stated in the “An Agent’s Inbox” guidelines, I have included the 250 words. Thank you for considering Favored.

My best,

C.N.

FAVORED

­If Lucy Howland had sensed the change a simple conversation would unleash on her life, she might have stayed home on that hot summer day. Then again, she might not have.

Every Tuesday during the break from school, Lucy and her friend Holden Davis met at the same place. Today, Lucy swallowed the heavy air more than breathed it. It had been that way lately, typical for upstate New York in August.

In two weeks their junior year would begin. Many of their friends fixated--online and in person--on their mixed emotions. But Lucy’s attention had been busy elsewhere, numbing her to the approaching school year, even knowing it was her sister Molly’s senior year.

As she sat perspiring on the cracked blue park bench, staring out over Maple Pond, she tried to wrap herself in Holden’s brightness.

This had become their place since they first cut class together two years before. They found a walking path through the dense woods around their high school. Thick pine trees provided cover no matter the season.

No birds called or crickets chirped. The creatures saved their music for the more bearable, darker hours of dawn and dusk. 

The more Lucy tried to clear her mind, the more the unwanted thoughts hung around.

“Hey,” whispered Holden. “Where did you go?”

He said it as if he were knocking on a door, full of “let me in.” Instead of answering, Lucy counted how many breaths he took before he knocked again. Six.